


How to Survive a Car Bomb

by Schnaucl (Onetrackmind)



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Episode S04e18 When Worlds Collide, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-27
Updated: 2008-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-21 02:56:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onetrackmind/pseuds/Schnaucl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens after Charlie is arrested but before he turns up at CalSci.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Survive a Car Bomb

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my betas spikedluv and penguingal. Can be read with slash goggles.

Don had always thought the expression about cutting tension with a knife was sort of extreme if not downright silly. But he and Charlie hadn’t spoken a word since Don had picked him up from holding nearly twenty minutes ago. He was aware that Charlie kept sneaking glances at him but Don’s gaze never strayed from the road in front of him and his white knuckled hands never left the steering wheel. Each mile, each _second_ trapped in the car with his brother increased the nearly unbearable tension but Don knew if they tried to break it, one or both of them would end up bleeding. Naturally, Charlie had to open his mouth.  
  
“Do you still love me?” His voice was quiet, but steady.  
  
Don felt like he’d been sucker punched. Again. He jerked the wheel so hard that his seatbelt dug into his shoulder and Charlie let out a grunt of surprise. More than one irate driver sounded his horn. Don had a moment of vicious satisfaction when the sides of his wheels grazed the curb and Charlie flinched.  
  
For the first time Don looked directly at Charlie. “How can you even ask me that?” he demanded, his voice harsh. “If anyone has a right to wonder if he’s still loved, has a right to feel betrayed, it sure as hell isn’t you.” He couldn’t stay in the car with Charlie a moment longer. He undid his seatbelt and managed to snarl, “Stay there!” before he got out of the car, shutting the door with a somewhat satisfying slam.  
  
He paced in front of the car, ignoring the traffic flying by dangerously close. He was acutely, irritatingly aware of Charlie tracking his every move.  
  
He couldn’t be alone with him, not now, not even for the thirty or so minutes it would take to cover the remaining distance to the house. He would say or do something he could never take back, give voice to those thoughts he only let himself think in his deepest, darkest, most selfish moments. Say them just to see them cut into Charlie and lodge in his heart. Leave Charlie as raw and broken as Charlie had left Don. After all these years as Charlie’s brother, and more recently his friend, he had a fairly good idea of what buttons to push, how to exploit Charlie’s insecurities and deal real and permanent damage. He knew how to destroy him, which was exactly why he couldn’t be near him right now.  
  
Don looked down and found his hands had curled into fists so tight that his nails were going to leave indentations on his palm for a while. With a tremendous effort of will he managed to lay his hands flat against his sides. But he stared down at the ground, taking deep breaths until he was sure he could hold himself together for the next ten minutes.  
  
He got back in the car and Charlie said, “Don, I--.”  
  
“Don’t. Not another fucking word,” he said, voice low and dangerous. He didn’t know what Charlie had been about to say: I love you, or I’m sorry, or I just need to explain. Whatever it was, Don was in no mood to hear it. Don buckled his seatbelt and turned his blinker on, looking for a break in the traffic. Beside him Charlie made a sound and Don turned his head sharply. “I mean it, Charlie. I can’t even stand to look at you right now so _do not_ test me on this.”  
  
Don found his opening and pulled into traffic. The next ten minutes were absolutely silent save for the usual road noise. Charlie didn’t move except for the rise and fall of his chest and the blinking of his eyes. Good. Maybe Don had finally gotten through.  
  
He took the next exit that advertised food and pulled into the parking lot of a Peet’s Coffee. He was immediately out of the car and a moment later he was opening Charlie’s door. Charlie opened his mouth to say something, then took another look at Don’s expression and shut it again.  
  
“Out,” Don growled.  
  
Charlie slowly unfastened his seatbelt and Don pretended not to notice his hands shaking. When he was free he grabbed Charlie’s wrist and saw him wince at the pressure but he didn’t complain. Don pulled him over to an empty table outside the store. “Sit.” Charlie sat, watching him with wide eyes.  
  
Don pulled out his phone and called directory assistance. In less than two minutes a taxi had been dispatched to their location, the driver promised an extra fifty dollars if he could be there in fifteen minutes.  
  
Don dug through his wallet and handed most of his cash over to Charlie. “When the cab arrives you are going to get in it. Right now I don’t give a damn where you go after that. Nod if you understand me.”  
  
Charlie nodded, his eyes overly bright. He was drawn in on himself, radiating misery, but for once Don didn’t let himself be swayed. Instead he walked away and got back into his car.  
  
But because no matter how fiercely, desperately, painfully furious he was, he still loved Charlie, and because Charlie was still, always, his responsibility, Don waited until the taxi arrived and Charlie was safely inside before he left the parking lot.


End file.
